"I don't believe I was intended to be President. I don't even believe I was intended to be a senator. But I do believe I was intended to do some thing, or things, that are a cause greater than my own self-interest – Sen. John McCain"

The proponents of a new Philippine political party are looking for the 10 best-and-brightest Filipino young men and/or women of every Philippine province to do things for a greater cause. The new political alliance is currently being organized by groups of Overseas-Filipino workers (OFWs), which will provide the bulk of the logistics required in creating a well-oiled political machine.

It is ideal that the young men and/or women who are being sought must not be over 40 years of age. They must not have been involved in any financial scandal or human-rights violations.

The provisional selection process is simple. After all the nominees are interviewed by a Search Committee, then the nominees themselves will vote for the top 10 of their peers in the respective province.

This idea to tap the Filipino youth for national leadership was actually inspired not by Sen. John McCain but by then President-elect John F. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy sought the top two best-and-brightest young men and/or women of every state for appointment to responsible positions in his administration. By this single action, President Kennedy created a pool of 100 new American leaders.

The plan of the OFW-led political party is to field some of the youth so chosen after a thorough nomination-and-selection process to run for Congress or for governor or a provincial, city or municipal elective office. The youthful candidates need not have the money for the campaign period and election process, as the political party will bankroll their candidacy.

The remaining youth not fielded for any candidacy will be appointed to responsible positions in the government, assuming that the OFW-led political party would emerge as the winner of the 2010 national elections. Even if they lose, the young candidates fielded would be appointed to a senior government position after the mandatory one-year waiting period.

The plan is to emulate the John Kennedy plan of appointing the top-two best-and-brightest young persons of every state to responsible government positions.

There may be plenty of good positions to be filled up. The OFW-led political party may move for a de-facto “federalization” of the present system even without first amending the Constitution. The plan is to “regionalize” all the cabinet positions, except for the Secretaries of Defense, Finance and Foreign Affairs. Since there are 15 regions in the country, the idea is to appoint 15 Secretaries of Agriculture, the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry), Tourism, DECS (Department of Education, Sports and Culture), Social Services, Interior and Local Governments, and so on and so forth. Each of the regional Secretaries will take care of his/her territory and be more answerable to the people of that particular region.

To borrow the words of Senator McCain, all of the political exercises would be anchored on the idea of a cause greater than the candidate’s own self-interest. Besides the OFW-led political party would sign a Covenant with the Constituents pledging various reforms within a given particular period.

For instance, the Covenant would stipulate that the House of Representatives and the Philippine Senate would be deprived of any pork barrel and all the monies so saved would be used to increase the salary of all government employees and/or fund a massive national reforestation. This proposal or at the worst, a line-item veto if the OFW-led political party’s presidential candidate would win, can mean that very few among the congressional and senatorial candidates would spend tens of millions of pesos. Why? The candidates, especially the traditional politicians, would not be able to recover their “investment” if the OFW-led political party would win the 2010 and subsequent elections. What congressional or gubernatorial candidate would spend 50-million to 100-million pesos if he or she would get to find out that the OFW-led political party would totally cut off the pork from Congress and all local-government agencies and that all government contracts would strictly follow the ATIC tenets? ATIC, as in accountability, transparency, integrity and credibility.

The search for the 10 best and brightest youth of every province will begin on May 1, 2008, two years removed from the May 2010 elections. More details will be announced in this section of the www.mabuhayradio.com.